What's my story?

Friday we went to a talk from Donald Miller, who is a Christian author whose most recent book ("A Million Miles in a Thousand Years") I read a few weeks after getting back from Liberia. I think the timing of it was just right. The book (and his talk Friday) is focused on the concept of "story". Basically, a director contacts him about making a movie about his life (based on his earlier book, "Blue Like Jazz"). But as he thinks about how the movie will go, he realizes his life doesn't really tell a good story. So he sets out to discover what makes a good story, and makes some interesting changes to his life in the process.

He finds that the elements of a good story are: "A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it." (Although of course there is more to it than that, since he wrote a whole book on it.) The thing I liked about the book is that it makes you think that your life doesn't have to be just a series of moments of you living, working, playing etc. No matter what you love in life, it's exciting to think that you can write a story through your life. Not that there's anything wrong with enjoying the moment and living for each day, in my opinion. But after being in Liberia, where I felt like what I was doing mattered in a much deeper way than just sitting at my computer all day, it affected me strongly to think that even living in Fort Collins, Colorado, I can live out a life that "tells a good story". Beyond that, I am kind of lost, because what would have to change for me to live a good story? Is my story decent now? Or should I sell everything and move to Africa? That seems a little extreme. These are kind of deep "life" questions that I don't intend to answer in this blog (or any time soon, to be honest).

But it's been on my mind lately and I think a great thing to think about. I do know that my life will involve working with Transformation International for the foreseeable future. It's a good thing I've already decided not to devote much time to training this year because that time has been easily filled up doing things related to the Peanut Butter House. I'm planning (another) event focused on it and other grass roots projects going on in Africa. I think it's going to be really neat, but maybe I should have gone into event planning rather than grad school.

Pictures

Here's a quick post of some of what we've been up to lately. First, a poignant photo from a coffee shop in Laramie. We tried to go snowshoeing in the Snowy Range a few weeks ago but bad roads in Wyoming resulted in us just getting coffee and going to Sierra Trading Post.


Last weekend though we were successful in our first backpacking trip of the year - yay! The weather was great except for a brief spurt of thunder-snow, which changed to some pretty intense graupel/hail for about 10 minutes. After that, though, it was clear skies.


The next morning we hiked up a little mountain near our campsite that had amazing views! Maybe I'll post more about that trip in the coming days. :)

Back to School

To anyone who thinks nothing good can come from blogging, I would like to say that after my post yesterday, I was motivated to get up bright and early this morning and call Christine in Liberia. It was great to talk to her, and the rest of the morning I was back to thinking about how much I just want to go back to Liberia (as hard as it was while we were there).

She said that Alfred has been registered for his classes and will start this week! Yay! She and Luther (her husband) went to Alfred's house a couple of times to speak with his father, but both times Jerome wasn't there. Apparently he was with one of his daughters, but I don't know for how long. I hope everything is okay there. The good news is that she is going to ask if it's alright for Alfred to come to the Transformation International house on the weekends to hang out with the boys there. I think that will be so good for him and fun, too, so that was exciting to hear. I'm so happy about how much they are reaching out to him.

Chris told me nice work on getting him to school but I have done basically no work on this. I just got suckered in by a little boy's smile, listened to a little nudging from God and then gave some very busy people more work to do. But it's great to hear that it is working out so far, and Christine said Alfred was very excited about going back to school.

I want to send all the kids who live in Alfred's house to school. I know some of my friends would help since it is so cheap but can make such a difference. Which is why I need to go back to Liberia, so I can set this up. (haha, now I'm daydreaming) :)

Alfred

Here is the rest of the story of the little boy I met in Liberia, Alfred.

After meeting Alfred’s father, Jerome, and seeing the tight-knit community he was a part of, I thought the best I could do for him would be to send him to school. Even at a public school, students have to pay for a uniform and their books. This comes out to about $35 a year – which is nothing to us but can be insurmountable for a large family with little to no income.

While I was in Liberia, I read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and it impressed upon me the importance of education. Especially somewhere as poor as Liberia, having an education could make a huge difference in how someone’s life turns out. Depending on the person, that is, because with an unemployment rate of 85% it takes more than an education to get a job.

Another thing that had inspired me to help Alfred was a story that Luther told us about his childhood. He got very sick as a boy and his family couldn’t afford to take him to the hospital. He was sick enough that he thought he was going to die. But some missionaries came along and took him to a hospital. At first they just dropped him off. He ended up in what he called the “hopeless” room. It was just him and a crazy lady, who kept talking to herself. He knew he was there to die because no doctors came by to check on him.

Then this man Jonathan came along (I might be off on some details here) and took Luther out of the hopeless room. Jonathan paid for his care until he was better. They have been friends, close as brothers, ever since. It was amazing to me because Luther does so much good work. At the very least, he has completely turned around the lives of 18 teenage boys who had no hope for a future. All of this wouldn’t be possible if not for the intervention of one man. So, you never know, the one person you help could make a huge difference!

After thinking about helping Alfred for almost an entire week (& yes I’ll admit to wondering if I could just take him home with me), I was anxious that my chance had passed. We were leaving for the States in a few hours! Christine had agreed to help me, but she is very busy with teaching at the Baptist seminary, helping Luther with Transformation International, taking care of her own children, and who knows what else. So I was extremely grateful when she said she had some extra time to go to Alfred’s house with me.

We pulled up and Christine was clearly touched by their living situation. From my perspective, the children are dirty and half-clothed. Some are clearly malnourished. They are small. Their home is a looted shell, a reminder of the war. I know why she was touched by their situation because I clearly was, too.

But the people living there are so friendly. Fatu remembered my name, and asked how Cindy and Chris were doing. She had a great personality and was very smart. Alfred had actually gone to the Peanut Butter House site to look for us so we just spoke with Jerome. Christine told him that I wanted to send Alfred to school. Alfred was in nursery last year and Jerome got his report card from Kendeja School. Christine said she would keep the report card so she could know where to go to talk about registering Alfred. She gave Jerome the task of finding out what needs to paid for and how much.

Unfortunately, that is where the story stops for now. I sent some money to pay for Alfred's school (thanks to a friend of mine from church for chipping in, too) but still need to talk to Christine about what she has found out. I hate that I've been home for over 2 months and this is still on my 'to-do' list, it's amazing how quickly time can pass and how easily I fill it with other things to do. Since I've gone through the trouble of posting this, I am making a promise to myself (& Alfred) that I'll call Christine tomorrow. I would really love to talk to her anyway because she was one of my favorite people that we met! So hopefully I'll have more information soon. Thanks for reading this kind of long story, but it was something that had a really big impact on me while in Liberia.

I heart supercomputers

OK, so my title is a lie. I'm trying to debug something on a new supercomputer and it's going VERY slowly. I learned that running my job interactively is much faster than going in the debug queue but it's still pretty tedious. So ... while my code does nothing I thought I'd write about my weekend, which was much more exciting.

Chris and I went for our first mountain bike ride of the year - a nice loop up Maxwell behind CSU's stadium, along Shoreline Trail, then linking up with some of the Foothills trail to Michaud Lane. Overall it was about 14 miles, a perfect length. Although in general Chris is better than me, one thing I am better at is keeping my expectations low after not riding for a while! He got frustrated a little easier when he couldn't make it through some rocky sections, whereas my response was just, "Yeah, I expected that". But I am excited about riding more and all things considered it was a very fun ride.

In the evening, I spent a few hours at the Bean Cycle reading for my class. Considering I was working, it wasn't too bad. Maybe that is because I didn't have coffee Friday (horror!), so a couple of cups made me very happy (until I couldn't fall asleep that night).

Easter was really nice. We went to church at 8:00 to avoid the crowds, and then had a relaxing morning with breakfast, getting ready for lunch (we had some friends over), and I went for a run. It took a lot of effort, but I didn't freak out this Easter like I usually do. In Georgia, Easter is BEAUTIFUL. The weather is warm, the flowers are blooming, and every one wears dresses to church. As a child, I associated this awesome weather with God being happy on Easter. Here, it's still mostly brown, cold, and snows sometimes (even this year it snowed for about 10 minutes). One year, I had a fit b/c I'd been planning on wearing a nice dress to church and it was a freaking blizzard. So I pouted on the bedroom floor for a few minutes and then had to wear pants and a sweater. What is Eastery about that?? Anyway, this year I was better, even when it started to snow. And by about noon it was gorgeous weather for my run, so I guess God likes Colorado Easters after all.

We also had our first softball game on Sunday. We continued our dominance in the rec league with a shut-out against a kind of intimidating looking team. AND I hit a triple!!! Sweet!! It must have been my belly full of macaroni and cheese (although that made running to 3rd a little painful). I hit well my first game of the year last year, too, and then ended up sucking a lot the rest of the year and perfected the art of hitting to the pitcher. So I really hope that doesn't happen again this year! We have another game tonight so I guess I'll find out soon.

A new goal

Well Chris and I have decided to put off children for a little bit. His job is very much up in the air right now and it doesn't seem like a good idea financially. Plus now we are seeing signs of summer and having conversations about backpacking in the Rockies, and I don't want to give that up! I think being pregnant in the winter sounds better, so we'll probably revisit this topic in a few months, depending on his employment status.

I was thinking the other day how my fitness level is very yo-yo like. Last summer I was probably the fittest I've ever been after doing the half ironman and 200 miles of backpacking. I think I did a reasonable job of staying in shape over the winter, but traveling and health issues have left their mark.

So, my new goal is to be CONSISTENT! 12 months a year! I get motivated by having concrete goals so I came up with some reasonable ones for the next 12 months:
- Run 625 miles ... that's an average of 12 miles per week. I've maybe averaged 10 miles a week the last couple of years.
- Bike 3000 miles ... This comes out to 30 miles a week in the winter, and 75 miles a week in the warmer 6 months of the year, plus a few hundred miles thrown in for good measure. :) Although when I was racing I definitely put in more than 75 miles a week, for a yearly total 3000 would be quite a lot for me.

A little motivation from some of my favorite runs and bike rides over the past year or so:
road bike ride in Arches National Park:

Views along my run along the Pacific coast in San Diego:


I think I can do this and have fun without overtraining and getting burnt out, like I kind of did toward the end of my half ironman training last summer. Also I figure things like hiking count as running so I can be flexible. Most of all, I am really excited about the spring weather and a summer full of good times in the mountains!

Of course, if I get pregnant then this will all change. But part of the motivation for doing this is that the better shape I'm in when I get pregnant, I would assume the more I'll be able to work out through the pregnancy and the healthier I'll be in general.